CLIPS: Members of Congress denounced Limbaugh's
"phony soldiers" smear

post from Media Matters for America on 27 September 2007 11:36:39 PM. © Media Matters for America

On September 27, several members of Congress denounced Rush Limbaugh for, as Media Matters for America documented, calling service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers" on the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show. Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) made speeches on the House floor responding to Limbaugh; Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made his comments on the September 27 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann; and Reps.[...]

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Dead Initiative

post from Eschaton on 27 September 2007 11:36:00 PM. © Eschaton

Good news, if sorta weird, if true.

Plagued by a lack of money, supporters of a statewide initiative drive to change the way California's 55 electoral votes are apportioned, first revealed here by Top of the Ticket in July, are pulling the plug on that effort.

In an exclusive report to appear on this website late tonight and in Friday's print editions, The Times' Dan Morain reports that the proposal to change the winner-take-all electoral vote allocation to one by congressional district is virtually dead with the resignation of key supporters, internal disputes and a lack of funds.

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Who do you want fixing the airline problems in
the US

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 27 September 2007 11:33:00 PM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Heaven forbid Bush touches that mess because the results will be predictably terrible for consumers. Please let the Democrats address this because even as bad as the US airline industry is today - and it's awful, among the worst in the world - Bush or any other Republican will somehow find a way to make it even worse. Instead of thinking about consumers including business travelers and tourists, Bush will find a way to create a new handout scheme to the long time players in the industry who always seem to struggle with the concept of old fashioned business ideas such as profit, customer service and decent pay for people who don't sit on the board. (In contrast, they do seem to excel in accepting billions in handouts from Congress and paying millions a year to executives while slashing workers pay despite being in bankruptcy and even finding a way to go out and right back in to bankruptcy.)

George, just leave this broken mess alone and let an adult handle it. You'll only make it worse.

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 27 September 2007 11:30:26 PM. © Crooks and Liars

click for largerWe got our wish… Larry Craig has decided to stick around a little longer. More from Driftglass (who made the GOP men’s room sign above…love the machine gun, Drifty honey), Winds of Change, and Idahofallz.

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Consumer Product Safety Commission - less
consumer, more product

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 27 September 2007 11:26:00 PM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Oh, you mean they were supposed to help consumers and not industry despite deadly and dangerous products? How does that fit with the GOP theory of industry self regulation?

The CPSC finally picked up the crib last week after the newspaper informed the agency of its investigation.

In announcing the recall, the CPSC said it had received reports of three deaths, seven infants trapped and 55 other incidents relating to faulty drop rail hardware and design. In all three deaths, parents had unwittingly installed the drop rails upside down.

"The fact that it has taken more than four years from the date of the first incident report and more than two years since the first report of an infant's death to announce a recall of these products is alarming," [Senator] Durbin said in the letter.

"It is unacceptable for the public to have to rely on journalists for this commission to act in a timely fashion."

A sad but true reality of consumer protection during Republican rule.

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“Rush” To Judgment: Can You Identify
The Phony

post from All Spin Zone on 27 September 2007 11:14:00 PM. © All Spin Zone

Limbaugh's reflections have long been directed at the unwitting...and with this latest assault upon soldiers who serve their country honorably...he has once again chosen to wield his haughty hammer like a crazed carpenter in a glass house.

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Thoughts on Edwards' Public Financing Move

post from MyDD on 27 September 2007 11:12:44 PM. © MyDD

I don't mean to be crass, I do not mean to denigrate campaign finance law, but there is simply no way I could support John Edwards based on his decision to accept public financing, thus placing a cap on the overall amount of money he can spend before the[...]

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C&Ls Late Nite Music Club with Roky Erickson

When I had a small indie label in San Francisco, 415 Records, my partner Chris was a Roky Erickson fanatic. I didn’t know who he– or his old band, Texas’ 13th Floor Elevators– were but Chris played me the tapes and told me they were like the Texas version of the Grateful Dead. I was [...]

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Late Nite FDL: Double Standards Much

(Image from The Sudden Curve)Think Progress:Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), an Iraq war veteran, released a statement slamming Limbaugh too:Someone should tell chicken-hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then[...]

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http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/09/27/late-nite-fdl-double-standards-much/

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An Incomplete Argument

(Matt Bai's The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics has already been reviewed here by MissLaura, and the author had a great liveblogging session and interview with SusanG. It's also been the subject of this week's Book Club at TPMCafe, and I was pleased to be invited to be one of its reviewers there--the only pure blogger included, along with some of my favorite writers, including Garance Franke-Ruta, Nathan Newman, Ed Kilgore, Mark Schmitt, and Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. In the middle of it all, and prominent in the comments, is the author himself. Kudos to Matt for sticking around for the discussion and the argument. Here's my contribution, added to MissLaura's and Susan's in hopes that those who are interested might follow the links over to TPMCafe, and to spark some more discussion about this whole enterprise of blogging. I encourage you to head over to TPMCafe for the whole read. There aren't too many fireworks, but there's some great discussion.)

The Argument is an entertaining, often insightful, and in some instances highly illuminating examination of the state of the outsider in Democratic politics today. Particularly interesting for me, since this was all new to my eyes, is his examination of the Democracy Alliance, and where all that money is, and isn't going. But this blogger is going to focus on the part she knows best. And, regarding the blogs, I found Matt's book frustratingly incomplete in two critical areas regarding the blogosphere: its narrow focus on the activist component of the blogs, leaving out the wonkosphere, and that most critical element that gave rise to the blogosphere and drove its massive and meteoric success--the failure of traditional media in our political discourse.

But let's start with the central premise of Matt's book: the Democrats lack "the big idea," and as far as the blogosphere is concerned, are more concerned with strategies and tactics--with winning--than with developing a philosophy for governing. From my perspective that's an incomplete premise to begin with, and Matt's evidence to support it is too narrow.

Just about every lefty blogger I know came to online activism because of their core belief in a traditionally liberal governing philosophy. It's best summed up by Matt Stoller in response to Jonathon Chait's thoughtful look at the blogs in TNR from a few months ago.

Basically, we're a group of people who feel very betrayed by the leadership of our country, our media, and our party. We care about ideas because bad ideas implemented tend to kill lots of innocent people, and we don't like that. We are liberal because we believe in liberal ideas, and by and large, we've been proven correct. The Iraq war was a terrible idea. Bush has been a horrible President. Running on Iraq in 2006 was a good idea. Stopping Social Security privatization was possible and necessary. A 50 state strategy made sense because a wave election was foreseeable. Don't trust the telecom companies with the internet. Let's figure out this global warming thing.

We don't necessarily distinguish between politics and policy, or activism and journalism, and we don't pretend that there is an above the fray and an 'in the muck'. Most of all, we respect ideas because ideas, when implemented, have immense power. Ideas matter. Conservative ideas have affected us personally, whether it was growing up in a suburb or having no health care insurance. And to the extent that you create ideas or appropriate ideas and organize around them, you can build a new society. That's what the right did, which is why we respect the right.

That's our starting point. It's not articulated in every post, but it's the foundation of every post, the foundation of why we are doing what we are doing. It informs every action we take, every word we write. That goes for the entire left blogosphere. Which brings me to what Matt's perspective on the blogs is missing: there are a multiplicity of sites, many of which are doing some pretty heavy lifting on the ideas side of the debate. His singular focus on Markos and Jerome, admitted tacticians who consider themselves firmly in the activist camp, leaves out some of the seminal work done in the wonkosphere--work that informs our activism.